Pinot Noir drives St. Joseph Vineyards

Art Pietrzyk thanks his former career for the motivation of creating pinot noir, one of the most difficult to produce wines, especially in Northeast Ohio.

“I’m stubborn and I’m an engineer so I wanted to know why you couldn’t do it,” said Pietrzyk, who along with his wife Doreen, bought the first plot of land in 1985 that became St. Joseph Vineyards.

But even though the area may not have the wine growing history of more well-known locations in Europe or California, Pietrzyk explained that Northeast Ohio, and in particular the Grand River Valley, is uniquely set up for successful wine making, due in large part to glaciers that moved through the region thousands of years ago. Plus, Northeast Ohio has the longest growing season of any area in the state, coming in at 190 to 200 days.

Now with vineyards and a tasting room in three locations in Thompson and Madison Townships, the company produces at least 12 wines with about 25 acres of land for growing grapes.

“By staying small, we’re able to control the quality,” said Pietrzyk, adding that everything at the vineyards, including the picking and sorting of grapes, is done by hand.

St. Joseph Vineyard is best known for its pinot noir, which has won multiple awards including a silver medal at this year’s international Pinot Noir Shootout and Summit held in California. It was also one of only a few wineries located east of the Mississippi River that were mentioned in John Winthrop Haeger’s well-known and comprehensive book North American Pinot Noir.

Pietrzyk also related the heart warming origin of the vineyard’s name. Before buying his own land to grow grapes, his father allowed him to grow in his backyard. During this time, his father got cancer and underwent treatment. Pietrzyk, his family and friends prayed the novena to St. Joseph throughout the treatments, and his father eventually went into remission.

A short time later his father picked the grapes, but he failed to sort them in any way. Pietrzyk decided to make a blended wine, calling it St. Joseph Noir Blend. It ended up winning numerous amateur wine-making awards, so the name stuck, and the blend is still made today.

In 2007, St. Joseph Vineyards opened its Main Tasting Room in Madison, where Christina Schier has been the manager and events coordinator for about five years.

While the tasting room does not offer much food aside from cheese plates, customers are encouraged to bring their own food and even picnic out amongst the grapevines, said Schier.

“When they come in, we sort of cater to them and to their flavors and tastes,” she said. “We make it a fun atmosphere and very family oriented.”

The tasting room does have occasional special events where more extensive food options are available, including on Aug. 2 when the Alan Greene Band will perform.

Pietrzyk added that while they may be viewed as business competitors, the other wineries in the area often work together to promote each others’ products.

“If a customer comes in and wants that sweet red, that’s not our thing, we’re more of a dry red, but we can point them to two or three other places that would have it,” said Pietrzyk.

Five wineries, Debonne Vineyards, Ferrante Winery, Grand River Cellars, Laurello Vineyards and St. Joseph Vineyards, have even go so far as to create a loyalty program for Winegrowers of the Grand River Valley. If customers visited the five locations between April through June, they would receive a free T-shirt.

Back when he first told people of his plan to create pinot noir out of Northeast Ohio, most other wine makers he talked to said it could not be done. But he soon learned that some wineries in Canada created a pinot noir, so he took advice from them and soon found a specific type of plant that could handle the rough winters in Ohio.

One of the main difficulties in growing the particular grapes is that they grow in very tight clusters, which often traps moisture causing the fruit to rot.

“Pinot noir is the holy grail of the wine maker, but it’s also the bane of wine growers,” he said.

That particular wine is what drove the Pietrzyks to found the vineyard and what keeps them working today.

“One of the reasons we love it so much is because it has many, many different dimensions,” he said. “It’s very aromatic, it has a lot of different flavors that evolve over time making it a very pleasant and enjoyable red wine.”